Batman Rise of the Dark Knight
by greenG82
Summary: A retelling of the orgins of Batman. Took a little while but Chapter 3 is up and I hope you guys like it, and please leave your feedback.
1. Default Chapter

Batman Rise of the Dark Night.

Chapter 1: Beginnings.

By greenG82

1. THE NIGHTMARE

Seventeen years ago.

"Wham! Bam! Z for Zorro." Bruce Wayne called out mimicking a sword fight as he walked out of the Monarch Theater with his parents. It was cold night clouds cover the sky and not a star or even the moon could be seen. A cold gust of wind passed by them. This was Bruce's idea of perfection he loved movies and once, sometimes twice, a month, as long as he kept up his grades his parents took him for an evening movie at the monarch theater. It was beautiful old theater that had been built in the thirties and was always showing some great old movie. The last time they came it was Duel in the sun, the week before that The Adventures of Robin Hood, and this week they were showing The Mark of Zorro.

Bruce continued to fight imaginary foes as he walked with his parents toward there car. Unlike most of the patrons at the theater the Wayne's opted to park in the back of the theater instead of the front to avoid the congestion cars that where all taking off. This meant going through a alley between the theater and the building next to it. They had been this way a dozen times and enjoyed the solitude of it just being the three of them. And as Bruce continued to fight and Martha ate some of the popcorn they had left from the movie and as Thomas Wayne laughed at his son a man followed behind them.

The man would now and forever remain without a face or a name. He was simply a man desperate who wanted money. He came up behind them and said in a loud clear voice, "Don't move." Both Thomas and Martha turned Bruce was to busy with his game to care about what was going on. Thomas saw the gun first and instinctively stepped in front of Bruce.

"Don't hurt my family," he said. Bruce turned but his father was in the way blocking a clear view of the man. Panic came across Martha's face and she began to shake, it was almost unnoticeable, but Bruce, being the perfect height could see her hands shaking at her side.

"Give me your wallet, your purse," the man said.

"Okay." Thomas reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Martha pulled her purse off her shoulder and reached out to hand it to the man. Thomas stuck his wallet out for the man to take. Bruce still unable to see what was happening, but could he could tell his mom and dad were very nervous and scared. Bruce turned around to see two men at the end of the alley staring at them. It was hard to see them in the darkness but he could see them just standing there watching this happen and then continued walking by.

The man took the wallet and the purse. He reached into the wallet and pulled out all of the money inside and shoved it into his pocket. He than dug into the purse and took out the money and shoved it into his pocket. He throw the wallet and the purse on the ground. "Is that it?" He said, "is that all you got?" The man then saw Martha's pearl necklace and reached out for it. Thomas seeing his chance grabbed the man's hand with the gun in it. Thomas pulled the man back which caused him to rip the necklace off of Martha's neck. The pearls broke off of the necklace and scattered everywhere. They struggled with each other trying to get control of the gun, but the man won in the end and fired a shot.

The gun echoed in the alley and made Bruce jump and his heart began to beat like a jackhammer. He stared at his father who wasn't moving he was just standing up against the man. Another shot echoed out and a splash of his father's blood hit Bruce in the face, but Bruce didn't flinch he didn't move he just stood in horror as his father fell to the ground, his eyes following his father the whole way down.

The man looked up at Martha who was staring at her dead husband. Behind the man Bruce saw a young couple standing staring at the horror in this alley. Another gun shot made them flee the scene. Bruce now watched as his mother hit the floor clutching her stomach where the bullet had went in. The man aimed his gun and fired another shot into her chest which stopped all her movement. Without looking at or even noticing young Bruce the man took off running out of the alley.

Tears rolled out of Bruce's eyes as he stared at his parents. He knew what death was, but had never experienced it. He reached out and picked up a piece of his mother's pear necklace that had broken off. "Momma," he chocked out. "Momma? Mommy. Daddy..."


	2. Chapter 2

2. HOME AGAIN

Bruce Wayne was awaken by a beautiful young lady sitting next to him on Gotham Air flight 401. "Are you okay?" she asked, "you looked like you where having a bad dream."

"I'm okay, thanks." Bruce got up and went to the small airplane bathroom. "God help me," he said looking at himself in the mirror. At twenty-five years old Bruce Wayne was still having the same nightmares. He closed his eyes and stared at the blackness inside his eyelids. Darkness comforted Bruce because in the darkness there was nothing to see, but in the light you always knew who was and who wasn't around you. He splashed some water on his face and went back to his seat. "Sorry if I bothering you while I slept," Bruce said to the young woman next to him.

"No it's okay you weren't bothering me, but you just moaning and moving and I was worried you where having a panic attack or something."

"Thanks, but I'm okay. Just having a bad dream."

"What was it about?"

"Well it wasn't a dream really it was a memory. Have you ever had that when a memory keeps repeating itself in your head?"

"No."

"Oh, well I do. My name is Bruce, hi."

"Hi my name is Kristin." Kristin offers her hand out to Bruce who shakes it.

"Do you live in Gotham?" Bruce asked.

"No...well yeah...well I mean I will now. I mean I'm moving to Gotham. I got a job offer here and so I'm moving here."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a journalist. I just graduated from college and my brother-in-law has a friend who works for the Gotham Herold and offered to look at my writing and he liked it and gave me a job."

"I read the Gotham Herold so I'll look for your articles."

"You live in Gotham?"

"Not for awhile. I was living in England, going to school, and traveling, and now I'm coming home. I actually haven't been in Gotham for a few years so it will be interesting to see how it has changed."

"Wow in England. I've always wanted to go. I want to go everywhere really that's why I became a journalist because I wanted to see the world and report on what I saw, but it looks like I'll probably be reporting on more local stories."

"You never know," Bruce said, "I learned at a very young age that you never know what will happen in life."

"Do you know what you'll be doing when you get settled again?"

"Yeah I think so. I'm going to work in my father's company, but I got plans for other things."

"Oh working for family is the worst the always expect far too much for you. At least that's been my experience."

"Yeah well this is a little different my father is dead and while I've been gone someone else has been running to company and so now that I've come back I have to decide whether I want to take over the company or...not."

"Oh yeah that is different. I'm sorry about your father."

"It's okay."

"Do you know what you're going to do?"

"I think so, but it's difficult. I know the board doesn't want me to take it over because I'm too young, but I own fifty-one per cent of the company and so whatever I say is law. I know if they could they would push me out even though it is my family's company, but like I said I have the power to do what I want. But I have to make sure what I do is really going to be good for the company. The last thing I want is my father's legacy to be destroyed because his son thought he could do something he couldn't."

"I'm sure you'll do the right thing."

"Thanks."

"It sounds like you really want to take over though."

"I think I do. I don't want it to leave the family."

"What company is it?"

"Wayne enterprise."

"Oh my God you're Bruce Wayne."

"Yeah."

"I didn't recognize you."

"Well that's good maybe the pictures that are taken of me don't come out that good."

"I just saw you at the airport newsstand. It was Time, I think, saying the prince was coming home. Wow I can't believe it I'm sitting next to Bruce Wayne. Sorry I don't mean to scare you it's just I've never met anyone nearly as famous as you. I was once eating lunch at a table next to a local newscaster, but wow, my sister is going to have a heart attack she has a huge crush on you. Can I get an autograph for her?"

"Sure."

It was the end of fall beginning of winter in Gotham city. The air was cold and the sky was covered in clouds the local newsman where predicting rain. Bruce Wayne and Kristin Record stepped out of Gotham International Airport hugging there coats closed.

"Can I give you a ride somewhere?" Bruce asked.

"No, my sister should be waiting for me in front of the other gate. Thanks though."

"Okay. Goodbye then."

"Goodbye."

Bruce starts to walk off toward a luxurious car parked by the curb. An elderly man stood next to it holding the backdoor open for Bruce to get in. Bruce stops and turns back to Kristin.

"I have to go now, but I'd like to see you again. If you want."

"Okay. Um...here let me give you my sisters number you should be able to get a hold of me there." Kristin gets a pen and a paper and writes down to number for Bruce.

"Okay. I'll call you." Bruce said before walking back to car.

"Hello Master Bruce," Alfred Pennyworth said to Bruce holding out his hand.

Bruce moves in and gives him a hug, "Hello Alfred it's good to see you."

"And you too."

Bruce pulls away and gets into the car. Alfred closes the door and gets into the drivers seat and takes off.

"She's a beautiful woman," Alfred said.

"Yeah," Bruce said, "So what's been happening in Gotham while I've been gone?"

"I brought today's paper for you." Bruce picks up the Gotham Tribune that sits next to him.

"Alfred cancel our subscription to the Tribune and start one with the Herold."

"Yes sir. Lucius Fox called and wanted me to remind you of the meeting you have tomorrow."

"I remember bright and early eight A.M.," Bruce says reading the paper, "When did Harvey Dent become district atterny?"

"Just recently the previous D.A. died and Harvey was announced to take over, at least until the next election."

"Well good for him. I'll have to give him a call and congratulate him. I haven't seen him in years. How is the other 'business' I asked you to look into going?"

"Sir I want to talk with you about that, not that you don't have the best intentions, but it's a bad idea and I don't know if I can sit by and watch you do this. I mean what would your parents think."

"My parents are dead."

"I tracked down the parts you asked for," Alfred reaches back and hand Bruce a folder. "This isn't going to be easy."

"I know. If you want to go I won't hold it against you. I'll understand."

"I made a promise to your parents and I intend to keep it. I will not leave you Master Bruce. I will always be here for you."

"Thank you Alfred."


	3. Chapter 3

3. Harvey and Betrayals

Kristin stands before the head editor of the Gotham Herold newspaper.

"So you're the new girl," the editor says.

"Yeah, please to meet you I'm Kristin."

"You'll take over food and culture let me show you to your desk so you can get started."

"I thought I was going to be writing..."

"You're writings good Kristin, but not that good. Listen the only way I let people on the big stories is if they got a big story. Do you have a story? No. Well than I you'll start in Food and Culture. Find something interesting and do a piece on it I really don't care what just have it on my desk by tomorrow. Let me tell you the rules don't bother me for anything and that's pretty much it. So any questions? Good I'll be in my office."

"Um...sir?"

"What is it."

"I really want to start on a bigger section in the paper."

"What's your story?"

"Well I don't have one I just got into Gotham."

"Than get a story. A damn good one. One no else has that how you move up in this office. You don't get a story then you stay on food and culture till you die like Jimmy over their."

Jimmy looks up from his desk. He is a fat man, unshaven, with pounds of cologne on to cover his smell.

"Jimmy came here with a degree from Harvard university. Top five in his class. Been writing obituaries since he never got a story someone else didn't have. Get to work or don't get paid."

"I hate my life," Jimmy said, "you want to car pool?"

"No thank you," Kristin said. "Excuse me sir what about Bruce Wayne?"

"What about him?"

"I could do a story on him."

"Sure he's always good for few lines in Culture."

"No, I have an idea for an article."

"What is it?"

"On the plane I was taking to here from my home I was sitting in my seat and..."

"Kristin you're a reporter now learn to leave out the details."

"Okay. On the plane I was sitting next to Bruce Wayne and we started talking about Wayne Enterprises and though he didn't say yes or no I got the feeling that he was going to take over the company."

"Are you shitting me?"

"No. He said he didn't want to see the company out of the family."

"That could be big news it could mean a lot to Wayne stock. I own stock I wonder that this for me. I should call my bookie – I mean stockbroker. Get a draft to me on my desk by the end of the day if it's have way decent we'll put it in tomorrow's paper. Jimmy your on food and culture now."

"Really?" Jimmy jumps up from his seat.

"No wait then I won't have anyone for obituaries never mind stay where you are I'll get someone to cover food and culture. Now both of you get working."

Kristin takes a seat at her new desk with a big smile on her face.

"Mr. Dent there's a man waiting for you in your office." A beautiful young woman said to Harvey Dent as he walked into his office.

"What does he want?" Harvey asked.

"He wouldn't tell me."

"Okay, thank you Susan." Harvey walks into his office to find a long man in a suit and trench coat sitting at a chair waiting for Harvey. Harvey recognizes the man instantly but doesn't acknowledge him instead he takes off his coat and goes to sit at his desk.

"Good morning Mr. Dent how is Gotham's new district attorney?"

"I'm fine Marty what do you want?"

"I just bring a gift from a mutual friend." Marty reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a fat envelope. "I trust you know who I mean."

"Yeah I do."

"Than he would like you to see what you could do about a man being held for drug charges. His name and information is in the envelope." Marty puts the envelope on Harvey's desk.

"Get the fuck out of my office and tell Thorn I will not be his dog."

"He expected as much so I'm to give an invitation to come with me and meet him in person."

Harvey picks up the envelope and throws it back at Marty. "You tell Thorn if he wants to meet with me he come here and make an appointment."

"Trust me Mr. Dent absolutely nothing will happen to you during the course of this meeting."

"Get out now."

"My boss will be at Tony's restaurant tonight from 7 through 10. Come by if you want to talk." Marty leaves.

Bruce Wayne walks through Wayne Enterprise main building guided by Lucious Fox an African American man of fifty. "And this is our Military department. This is where we handle all our military contracts our main one right now is this body armor." Lucious shows Bruce a mannequin standing in the middle of the large warehouse sized room with men working all around the area of the room. The mannequin was dressed in a black body armor that covered it's whole body. "The armor we developed is super flexible. I tell you Bruce I've never seen anything like it. And it's been able to stand up to everything we've thrown at it. And this...this is my favorite." Lucious walks over to another mannequin a few yards away from the first draped in a black cloth. "The first armor can stand up to shrapnel and gun fire, but not to extreme heat or cold and if caught in the middle of an explosion won't hold up, but this...this will. It's a synthetic fiber we developed early this year. It can stand up to extreme heat or cold or anything. One of our scientist said it's dense enough that it could protect someone from a nuclear blast. I don't know about that, but it is really amazing."

"Why not use this to make the body armor?" Bruce said.

"Well we're having a hard time cutting and fitting the fabric. As you can imagine a standard pair of scissors aren't enough to cut through it. But we are hopping that we create a simple coat that could be draped over soldiers."

"How long until we can get this in the field?"

"That's the bad thing. The cost of production if very high and the military isn't sure if they want to buy it. The fabric unfortunately will most likely be scrapped before we can perfect it because it is so expensive to produce."

"Have you considered donating it to the military or police or firefighters?"

"Yes, but without any income from it, it could possibly bankrupt the company." Lucious said as he walked off to the next room. Bruce stayed back for a second looking at the two mannequins.

Lucious opened a door to a smaller, but still large, room where only a large vehicle stood. It was the size of tank with huge monster truck like wheels and layers of steel plating overlapping each other. "What is it?" Bruce asked.

"This," Lucious said, "is the future of military transport. It's by no means perfect and can barley run right now, but in the next six months we hope to have a prototype available for the military to come take a look at."

Bruce and Lucious walked down a large hallway of and stopped at one big double door. Lucious knocked and walked in followed by Bruce. "Victor," Lucious said holding out his hand. A tall thin man with a full head of black hair and thin mustach and beard turned around and smiled at Lucious. "Bruce this is Doctor Victor Fries. Or as the others like to call him Mr. Freeze F-R-E-E-Z-E."

"It's very nice to meet you mister Wayne."

"Nice to meet you too what is it you're working on?"

"Cryogenics." Lucious said.

"That's right," Victor said, "I've made some amazing leaps and bounds in the study of Cryonics. Just recently we were able to freeze and revive a monkey two months after. It was really quite amazing."

"I bet it was," Bruce said.

Bruce Wayne sat down at a chair in Lucious' office and gazed out at the view of the city from Lucious' window. Lucious took a seat behind his desk, "It's a beautiful city."

"Yeah I'd almost forgotten what it looks like."

"Listen Bruce I want to get down to business. What is this in the paper?" Lucious picked up a copy of the day's paper from his desk. It was open to the financial page and in big letters on the top of the page it read, "WAYNE HOME TO TAKE OVER INDUSTRY."

"I'm sorry about that Lucious..."

"This isn't the way to conduct business Bruce having the stock holders read about there company in the paper is bad business. Your father always made sure those within the company knew what was going on before talking with the press."

"Listen it was just a girl on the plane I was talking to I didn't know she was going to write a story."

"Is it true?"

Bruce sat in silence for a second contemplating the question. "Yes," he finally answered.

"Bruce I consider you a friend. I've been in charge of this company ever since your parents died I've see you grow. And I'll be honest with you I don't think you can run this company."

"You don't think I can run my father's company. Why? Because of what you've read about me?"

"No, it's because what I know. I know you where gone for over two years. Two years I could not get a hold of you. Alfred kept making up some excuse for you but I knew he was lying. Two years. You can't just disappear in business you'll get eating alive."

"It was closer to three years and it's none of your business."

"This company is my business and anything that happens to it affects me. I thought you would come back for it, but years ago after you graduated college. But you didn't you said you where going back to get your major, but that was a load of bullshit."

"Lucious I had things that I had to do, but I'm here now and this is my company I will not let Wayne be taken over. It will stay in the family."

Lucious relaxes a bit. "You are like your father. You want something and nothing will stop you. You know his first company failed miserably."

"And his second company when on to be a multi billion dollar industry. Success doesn't come without trying. This is my company and I want you to stay on to handle the day-to-day operations of Wayne Industries, but no decision will be made without my approval."

"So what I'll just become your assistant."

"No. You know this company, I need you to help me. I can't and won't make you stay, but I need you hear to make sure everything runs the way it should be. But you have to understand I can't just walk away from this company."

"I won't leave Bruce, but it's not going to be easy for me to step down."

"I'm just asking you to step aside and help me when I need it."

"The first thing you have to do is damage control. This article is being picked up by everyone and I've already had calls come in about it. So we'll get you all dressed up and put you in front of the shareholders and let them see the son of Thomas Wayne. And it has to be done fast before the week is up."

"Okay set everything up."

Harvey Dent sat at a table at Tony's restaurant at 7:00 P.M. Rupert Thorn took his seat across from Dent. Rupert Thorn was a fat man in an expensive suit. "Well Mr. Dent," Thorn said, "I honestly didn't think you would show up. I'm surprised."

"I got your little message today."

"Yes well I sent one of my boys to your office to open a dialog between you and I after all for some reason I've gotten a bad reputation in this city as a pimp and a drug dealer. I honestly don't know how these rumors get started so I just wanted to meet with you and show that I am really I nice guy."

"I meant the other one."

"Other what?"

"I found my cat dead at my door step when I came home this afternoon," Harvey said.

"Well what a terrible tragedy."

"It's neck was broken."

"I honestly don't know what this has to do with me, but if you would like I'd be more than happy to buy you a new cat. But that's just because I'm such a nice guy."

"Cut the bullshit Thorn."

"Harvey there's no need for that language."

"Thorn I'm coming after you. You will go down I swear to Christ almighty I will see you behind bars."

"You shouldn't swear Harvey after you never know what will happen."

"You can threaten me. You can hurt me. But I won't stop. I know it was you that killed the last D.A. but I'm D.A. now and I'll bring to trial each and every one of your goons until I get to you if I have to." Harvey gets up from his seat and walks out the door. A woman of thirty takes Harvey's seat.

"What do you think? You want him taken care of?" The woman, Catherine, asks.

"No. A man with that kind of passion could be very popular. I want Dent the people could really love him. I want Dent and if we can't get him well then it's unfortunate when they don't take a good thing." Rupert gets up from the table. "Do some research on our Mr. Dent and see what you can uncover. We might get lucky and find something he doesn't want anyone to know about. And if not then we'll do more than just play with his cats."


End file.
